Hey, thanks for everyone's patience. I was out of town with no internet, and before I was out of town I was kind of sick. I'm really sorry to have held things up! But this is a reeeeaaally big one, and I think it'll have a lot of things a lot of people are waiting for. Laughter! Tears! Drama! Angst! Only two more chapters after this one...it's been a wonderful ride.

Klutz82 - Thanks, sweetie. I like the boys too. Especially Nijil. ;) And I'm glad you enjoyed Zel's moments of affection. He's getting better, isn't he? Whatever are you scared for? Heh heh heh...
Gerao-A - It's okay, I was on vacation too. I still appreciate it! :) And Amelia's eyes turned gray when Dynast took her. What might that mean....hmmm....
Lyra Pelgina - It seemed important to lengthen it at the time! You'll be away from that cliff-edge by the end of this one, I promise. :) And take your time on the MiroSan stuff. They're not going anywhere. I'll be grateful whenever you get the chance.
Sailor Leo - Thank you very much! I tried really hard to not have people act crazy-like. Xellos/Amelia, huh? Now that's a pairing I haven't seen in a long time. Whatever floats your boat, I guess. ;) Thanks so much for reading!

-------

Part XVIII- Just A Girl

"And now I cannot speak
I've lost my voice
I'm speechless and redundant
Cos I love you's not enough
I'm lost for words..."
-"Redundant," Green Day

-------

Say something.

Say anything.

It can't be as bad as you think. She's calling you what she always called you.

Say something.

It's her.

Zelgadis swallowed hard and looked at Amelia.

"I...uh...I lost your bracelet."

Oh that was brilliant. What a stupid thing to say. Like she'd even be thinking about her stupid bracelet right now. She'd just woken up! Why was he such an idiot?!

"My bracelet?"she shifted to be out of the bright light. "...You mean the pink and blue..."

"That one. Yeah."

"Oh."

She blinked again, and noticed in her stupor that the chimera's eyes had not wavered from hers.

Eyes...

"What's wrong with my eyes, Zelgadis-san?"

"Nothi-"

"Why are you staring at me like that?" Amelia sat up quickly and before Zel even had time to blush, she was pawing at the bandages on her chest. "What...what is this? What happened to me?" Her hand was flat on the bandage on her sternum, and for a moment he feared she might tear it off. Instead she just concentrated on the wall behind him.

Then, barely grabbing the sheets for modesty, she leapt out of the bed and hurried over to that wall, where a mirror hung. Strange...Zel hadn't remembered seeing one there before.

Amelia looked at herself. Gray eyes looked back. Agony, darkness, loss of self filled her mind and she gagged, but because she hadn't eaten in months, all she managed to do was cough a few strands of blood into her hand. When that was done, she turned back to Zel, silver fire blazing in her pretty face.

"This is your fault."

Her words were sharper than daggers, filled with an emotion beyond hate. No single combination of letters and intonations had ever made him want to cry so much. She blamed him. She probably had no idea what had happened, but that didn't matter; she still knew it was all because of him.

"Amelia, I-"

"I don't want to hear it!"she faced the mirror again, and did pull the bandage in the center of her chest off, gazing at the red wound that was almost closed. She caressed it more, almost violently, and a small part that wasn't entirely healed opened, and bled anew. She didn't seem to notice. "I don't understand...And...where's my ring? What happened to my ring?!" She sounded almost frantic.

"Your ring is..."

"I feel sick." Amelia interrupted, and promptly fell against the wall, sliding down into a heap of flesh and sheets on the floor.

Zel was frozen for a moment. That had to have been one of the strangest and most awful conversations in his life. And what was he supposed to do now? Being touched by him was probably the last thing she wanted, but there was no way he could leave her on the floor like that. Moving slowly to her side, he gently lifted her into his arms, shocked at how much lighter she was than she'd been a mere five days ago. Her head lolled back over his arm, and her mouth continued moving, barely forming words. What was coherent was nothing Zel wanted to hear.

He set her down on the bed carefully, and replaced the torn bandage, holding his hand firmly over it to stop the bleeding again. When it seemed to have slowed, he slipped her under the covers and pulled them up to her chin. An afterthought, Zel reached up to touch her cheek, but as if on cue, she rolled onto her side away from him.

Defeated and denied again.

The familiar feeling of his heart being clamped in a vice was back in full force as he flopped down on his bed and buried his face in his pillow. Arika had been far too right. He should have known she wouldn't forgive him.

He should have known that it would never stop being all his fault.

-------

It was the weight of something being set down on her foot that woke her up. Amelia lifted her heavy eyelids and took in the window illuminated with the gorgeous morning sun, and a woman with red hair standing over her. At first she thought it might be Lina, but as soon as she spoke, it became very clear it was someone else entirely.

"Well good morning, dear! I didn't know you were awake!"

"Mmm?"Amelia rubbed her eyes and raised herself on her elbow.

"We were beginning to worry about you." the woman knelt down and placed her hand on Amelia's forehead. "But your fever's broken now, and it looks like you're in the clear."

"Uh, I don't mean to be rude, but..."

"No, princess, I'm being rude. Call me Arika, inn-keeper and healer. I fixed up these nasty holes in you, but you seem to have done something to this one..." Arika looked at one of the now-reddened bandages.

"How did you know I was a princess?" Amelia asked, more than a little bewildered.

"Your friend told me."the healer pulled the bandage off without so much as a warning and cast a healing spell again. "I wonder how you did this. Did you wake up before?"

"I..." Amelia was a little taken aback at Arika's forwardness, but the spell was soothing to the pain in her chest, and she was happy to let it continue. " Think I might have...last night sometime." She squeezed her eyes shut and thought hard. "Yes, I...did, but I don't remember what I..."

"Did you wake up before Zel fell asleep?"

"Before..." Memories began to trickle back, and her eyes hardened. "Yes. Yes I did."

"Hmm...I don't like that look, sugar puff. I take it things didn't go as well as he'd hoped."

"No."

"Well I'm sure you'll tell me at breakfast, but dredging up badness is not our first priority this morning . What is is getting you into the bath and having Nijil make you some of his quality toast. You could stand to gain a few pounds back."

The princess' head was swimming. This woman talked so fast...

"Wait...Nijil?"

"One of the demons that I call my sons." Arika scooted over to the door and called another name out it before turning back to the girl. "We had to dispose of your things, so I brought you one of my sweaters." She pointed at the weight on Amelia's foot -a folded mound of dark green wool. "It might be a little big, I wore it when I was pregnant with Mikale."

"Thank you very much..." Amelia dragged it over and pulled it on, laughing a little as she discovered just how big it was.

She put it on just in time, as a young man with long dark hair and glasses poked his head into the room.

"Yes, mom?"

"Dkkar, the princess needs to be carried to the bath. If you would..."

"Oh no!" Amelia started to get out of bed. "Please, A...Arika-san, I can walk!"

"No no no no no. And no. Dkkar?"

Smiling, he crosses the room and scooped the little princess into his arms.

"It's an honor, my lady." he said, and Amelia could do nothing but blush.

She felt safe for the first time in months. And she felt human for the first time in...oh, she didn't even know how long... or why it mattered so much. Of course, Arika was right. What the issue of the moment was concerned her getting into a bath, and who was she to argue if a handsome boy was going to carry her there?

It only occurred to her later that she was secretly wishing he was someone else.

The same marvelous sun that had met Amelia greeted Zel himself a little later.

-------

If the sun were a person, he would have slapped them.

The whole goddamn world hated him. He was even more certain of it now. Now that he'd failed with Amelia again. What did that make it? Four? Five?

"Shiiiiit...."

With more than a little effort, he pushed himself into a sitting position on the side of the bed, holding his head in his hands. To top off how horrendous he was feeling, he'd slept in his clothes, and he hated doing that.

Basically, he decided, he would have been happier if he were dead.

Something within him stirred and he raised his head to see Amelia...who wasn't in her bed anymore.

He leapt to his feet. She was gone? Where could she be?! His train of thought scurried over these thoughts for a few seconds before rationality reminded him that she had probably woken up again and gone outside. It was a good thing his brilliant brain thought of this stuff.

Sighing, Zel made his way to the door and left the room, to be greeted with the site of Amelia sitting at one of the inn's tables with Arika and sons, clearly enjoying herself. Her hair was wet, and it was unquestionable that she'd just come out of the bath. Her small body was swimming in a big green sweater, but somehow it suited her. She looked happy, and alive, and...and beautiful. And from the way Dkkar and Nijil were looking at her, it was clear he wasn't the only one that felt that way.

Jealousy flared within him, and despite the fact that he knew it would turn out badly, he stalked over to the table and stood behind her.

"Good morning Zel-san!" Mikale chirped.

Amelia choked on her slice of toast, and had to be whacked on the back several times by Arika before she recovered.

"Amelia-san, what's wrong?" the little boy obviously didn't get it. "Aren't you happy to see him?"

"Mikale-kun, I..."

"Zel-saaaaaan!" he whined. "Did you forget to tell her you loved her?"

Amelia started choking again, Dkkar sighed, Nijil rolled his eyes, and Arika reached over to pat her son on the head.

"Mikale love....we need to talk."

"But Zel-san didn't-"

"I think you're a little confused, Mikale-kun." Amelia spoke gently. "Zelgadis-san isn't in love with me."

Behind her, Zel flinched as if he'd been struck.

"You didn't hear him talking about you! He told us a whole big story about you, and about how he loved you, and how he had to kilmmph!"

No one seemed to mind Nijil shutting up his little brother and hauling him out of the chair.

"Whoops, guess it's time to do the dishes, right small fry?"

"Njmm!"

"Glad you agree."

The two disappeared into the kitchen, and Dkkar was quick to follow them, bearing all the dishes they'd conveniently forgotten. Arika made some excuse about "Oh, whoops, gotta run to the...bye!" and then they were alone.

As soon as it happened, Zel was struck by the difference in the air around her. Her presence was...changed, to say the least. She didn't even have to turn around for him to know that she was smilingly bitterly as she spoke, an expression that was completely new to her face.

"I think it's funny. You must have told them some story for Mikale-kun to decide that you love me."

"Amelia, I don't think that that's the first thing we should-"

"It's not the first thing we've said to each other. We talked last night, remember?"

"That wasn't a conversation. That was you blaming me for...for something I deserve."

He hoped his words would at least make her look at him, but she continued staring out the inn's distant front windows.

"I know you do. I...don't know why. It seems like there's something huge that I just can't remember. I mean, obviously there is, because this is not Seyruun, and I am not physically all right. But I don't know what happened. All I know is that it stems from you. From me too, but..."

Deciding he had no other choice, he sat down beside her, watching her intently.

"You're right. I won't deny it. But because you don't know what' s happened-"

"Means that I have no right to judge whether or not you really do love me now." She laughed a little. "Isn't this amusing."

"I really don't think so."

"You know, I don't either." Amelia was playing with her hands; her right hand kept trying to twist an invisible band around ring finger of her left. "Where are Lina-san and Gourry-san?"

"Hopefully on a boat."

"A boat to where?"

"Here. Merrid."

"I've never heard of it."

"I thought Arika would tell you."

"So I'm sitting here in a town I've never heard of, full of holes and with gray eyes. And now you love me. What a bizarre world I came back to." Unconsciously, her mind asked Back from where? and she had no answer.

"Amelia..."

"I want to go to sleep again." she stood up suddenly and pushed her chair back, heading for the room. "I'd prefer it if you didn't come in."

Just like that, the door slammed, and the conversation was over.

And Zel was rather glad that he was alone, because then no one had to see him cry again.

-------

If it had asked her, she would have gladly married the sky. Amelia couldn't remember the last time she'd seen anything so perfect, so blue, such a sheer, cold, majestic color. It made her more than happy that she was alive again.

But what did again mean?

When had she died?

Oh, she knew something had happened. She'd woken up with three holes in her body, one of which constantly called out for her hand. She'd noticed herself unconsciously rubbing the wound in her chest, almost as if there was an object inside that she wanted to get to. What was it? She'd never had nervous habits like that before...

She'd hoped Arika could tell her what happened as the older woman took her shopping the day after she'd woken up. But the healer stubbornly maintained that she was not the one to ask. Amelia wanted to get it out of her, but figuring that Arika and her sons had already gone to enough trouble at her expense, she let the matter drop, and happily accepted the warm, heavy sweaters and leggings that her savior bought for her. They were blue, like her precious sky.

Blue like her eyes used to be.

What had happened to her eyes?

Two days after she'd awoken, Mikale had convinced her to help him build a snowman. Although she still felt light headed when she stood for too long, she complied, and ended up having a wonderful time with the child. But he kept bringing up "Zel-san" and whenever he did, Amelia found that she needed to quickly change the subject.

Zel was connected with what had happened, but she couldn't talk to him. She just couldn't.

And she had refused to make eye contact with him since she'd risen. She'd forced him to move out of the infirmary wing of the inn, and take a room upstairs. She got up from the table whenever he came near and very nearly covered her ears every time she heard his voice. She couldn't take it.

Whatever had happened was because of him.

And sooner or later, she knew they would have to speak. She would have to find out why her eyes were gray now; why, although she was certain that she always dressed in white, she'd bought blue sweaters instead. She would have to learn why it was that when she hazarded a glance at him, Zel looked like he was slowly dying.

The princess would ponder this late, late into the night, hand pressed against her chest, fingers turning a forgotten ring around her finger.

Nervous habits...

Gray eyes...

Zelgadis-san is dying, just like I did. But when? When did I die?

And just when she'd counted a week since her eyes had opened, just when she decided that like it or not, she'd have to face her man of stone, just when she couldn't stand not knowing any longer, Lina and Gourry burst into the inn on a windy night.

Saved.

-------

"Amelia-san!"Nijil called from out in the midst of the sea of people the inn's dining hall had become.

Amelia looked you from behind the bar, where she had taken to helping out as a thank you to Arika for saving her. Not to mention the fact that Dkkar had been called away on what he termed "very urgent business" and there was no one else to pour the drinks.

"I need...um...Just a sec!"

The princess giggled. Nijil was adorable for his fourteen years- a cocky little brat most of the time, but he seemed to be less catty around her. Dkkar had helpfully suggested that his younger brother had a crush on her, and Amelia had barely had time to blush before Mikale interrupted that she belonged to Zel.

Thinking of that, she had to sigh again, and almost unwillingly, cast her eyes to the corner of the room where Zel was sitting in his usual table, head in his hands. She knew she was the reason he was doing it, but for the life of her, she couldn't bring herself to talk to him. Shaking her head, she sought out Nijil, frantically taking notes on drink orders as he was called by a dozen people at a time.

A sudden rush of cold air indicated that the door had been opened again, this time by a pair, both looking very cold, and very, very tired.

"That was the longest trip of my life..."the smaller person moaned.

"It was shorter than the way there. I think that's because Dhitney was afraid you would eat her boat."

"Yeah, well....HEY KID!" Lina Inverse tossed back her hood and shouted at Nijil. "WHERE IS THERE A-"

"LINA-SAN!"

Lina barely had time to look up before a mass of...something launched itself over the bar and crashed into her, screaming her name.

"What the...AMELIA?!

Looking down, Gourry let out yell.

"It IS Amelia!"

"WAH!" The fire-haired sorceress wrapped her arms tightly around her friend and swung her around. "Amelia!"

"Lina-san!"she turned to her embracee's constant companion and wrapped him in a hug that put her father to shame. "GOURRY-SAN!"

"Amelia...it's good to have you back."he smiled into her hair as he bent his taller body over her.

"Let me look at you!"Lina quickly wiped away some tears and pulled her around by the shoulders, immediately freezing. "Amelia...your...you eyes..."

Of course.

"I...know, Lina-san." Amelia couldn't help sliding those eyes towards the floor, not wanting to see the stares she knew she was getting. "They were like that when I woke up."

"Huh? Her eyes? What's wrong with them? OW!"

"They're gray, you idiot!"

"Oh...Why is that a big deal?"

"Because her eyes were blue, don't you remember? And then they turned gray when Dynast turned her into..."

"Dynast turned me into what?"

Lina and Gourry's jaws dropped simultaneously.

"You don't know?"they asked in perfect unison.

"No." An embarrassed blush heated her cheeks. "I have no memory of what's happened to me. The last thing I remember...is...is something that hurt like the end of the world, and then just...darkness." Her hand found its place and began to rub her sweater against her fresh scar tissue. "I know I was taken by Dynast...that much is clear, but I don't know why, and I don't know what happened after that."

"Well didn't Zel tell you? If he didn't, I am going to kick him so hard, he'll-"

"Amelia and I haven't spoken."

Gourry very nearly had a new hat made out of Lina when the chimera's voice came out of nowhere. Climbing off her lover, she gave Zel the look of death, punched him in the face, and then hugged him.

"We worried that you'd died."she whispered.

"No...not yet."

As Lina released him, he clasped hands with Gourry.

"I'm glad to see you two made it back in one piece."Zel mananged a smiled for his friends. "I wish I could say the same for myself."

"I don't get it. You two haven't spoken? Well why the hell not?"

Gourry, attempting to be the more tactful of the two, merely regarded the princess and the chimera. Her eyes were still downcast, and she seemed uncomfortable by the mere presence of Zel. The shamanist himself could hardly keep his eyes on Lina as she yammered at him how they'd run out of food and wood on Dhintney's boat; he was looking at Amelia with such longing, such sorrow... And it didn't take a man greater than Gourry Gabriev to realize that Amelia had no idea what part Zel had played in not only her agony, but her all-important rescue.

"Lina." His hand came down on his sorceress' shoulder, silencing her mid-word. "Food is going to wait. I think that we need to talk to Amelia."

Suddenly exceedingly nervous, Amelia started to back away, much to the swordsman's dismay.

"I'd love to, Gourry-san, but I...uh...have to help at the bar! I'll save a room for you and we can talk after closing! Ja!"

With that, she scurried back to the bar, just in time to receive Nijil's drink orders. Left still standing in the doorway, Lina, Gourry, and Zel looked at each other.

"You look like you've been through hell and back, Zelgadis Graywords."

"I have, Lina. In more ways than you can imagine. Come on, I have a table."

-------

Arika had been introduced.

Mikale had seen that he approved.

And Lina and Gourry were welcomed to the inn, showing their appreciation by eating and eating and eating almost beyond their normal scale. The boys were fascinated, and Zel could only shrug in response to their awe. Hell, he still hadn't figured out how they could pack so much away and not look any different when they stood up. He suspected it was one of the world's great mysteries.

Nearing midnight, the dining hall was finally clearing out, and people began to head to their rooms. From the way she was starting to lean heavily on his shoulder, Gourry could tell that his fiancee was more than ready for bed. But shaking her gently, he reminded her of important business, and excused themselves from Zel and Mikale.

"Are you going to help Princess Amelia fall in love with Zel-san like she's supposed to?"

Gourry smiled warmly at the child.

"We'll do our best."he said, and then they went over to the bar and declared Amelia off-duty before dragging her into her room.

How long he waited for them to come out, Zel didn't know. Arika had offered to sit with him, but she was at last forced to retire herself, leaving him with only a coffee pot and empty mugs for company. Sometime after his mother had left, Dkkar came in, pulling his very urgent business -a very familiar ship captain- behind him. Dhitney stopped to exchange pleasantries with Zel before her boyfriend pulled her away, and then silence closed in once more.

He was very close to falling asleep when the door to the infirmary finally creaked open and a haggard looking Lina stepped out, flanked closely by Gourry. Zel stood up quickly, knocking his chair over, and bounded over. He regarded his friends, and sighed.

"It didn't go well."

"How could it? She had to relive four months of horror. That's not an easy thing for a person to do."

"But,"Gourry supplied, catching Lina as she started to drift to the floor. "She did say that she would talk to you now."

"I..."

"No. No to whatever you were going to say." the blonde man shook his head and pointed behind himself to the door. "Just go."

Zel nodded mutely, and giving a brief wave goodnight, stepped into the room.

The lights were dim, and from the way the shadows danced on the form on the bed, she almost didn't look real. Her knees were pulled up to her chest, and her face was buried in the arms folded on top of them, making her look even smaller.

"Ame...Amelia..."

Seconds crawled by before she raised her head, and the tear-stains that he knew would be there became a solid fact.

"Well...I guess it is probably time for us to talk, ne Zelgadis-san?"

Nodding again, he walked over and took a seat on the edge of her bed.

"I...They told you."

"They told me."her voice was raw, and from this closer vantage he could see her eyes were bruised from crying. "They told me and now I don't know what to think."

"Don't know what to think about what?"

"About me. About what happened. About Xellos-san. About you." She drew her hands insider her long sleeves and hugged her knees closer. "I was Mazoku, Zelgadis-san. Do you know what that means? Yes of course you do, but do you know what that means for me? I was the polar opposite of everything I've dedicated my life to. I was pure, unrelenting evil. I served a Dark Lord. Me, the princess of Seyruun. Gods...I should just forfeit the crown now, shouldn't I?"

"No, you-"

She shook her head to stop him.

"It's funny how I started to remember before they started talking. I remember Grau-san, and Grou-san, and I remember that awful sword...that sword they said I used against you. I remember, but it's all shadowy." she paused to give a hollow, bitter laugh. "Isn't that just perfect? My shadow life."

At this moment Zel wanted to reach over and pull her to him, to hold her and tell her that a shadow life was all it was, and it didn't matter in the least. But it did matter...and he had no right to touch her.

"And that Xellos-san saved me. That I was brought back to life by a Mazoku spell. That's...that's bothersome enough, but to know that now I have this thing sealed inside me, put there by someone who has double-crossed us more than once." She was crying again, how could she not? Zel let her cry and made no moves to comfort her. "And you! You're the root of everything that happened here! It's so horrible of me, and yet...it isn't, because I'm right. I'm right, aren't I? Aren't I?"

Zel nodded.

"Because you didn't love me. Or...well, if I listen to Lina-san, you did love me. You always have. But you never said a word. You never gave me any indication that I was anything more than just a girl to you...." Amelia wiped her eyes on her shoulder and folded her arms across her chest, leaning back into her propped-up pillows. "It somehow seems like...I don't know, some kind of poetic justice that I hated you so much. That I died hating you not once but twice. Lina-san and Gourry-san said that I told you I'd kill you. I swore I'd kill you. I couldn't stand the sight of you."

"It's true. You...you fought me like I never...like I never..."he didn't know what else to say.

"I don't know, Zelgadis-san. I'm so confused. I died hating you, and yet from the first moment I wanted you to come and save me. I couldn't ever stop loving you, not even when I hated you...But...but maybe that's the point. I mean, everyone always says love is the worst and the best thing that can happen to you. And maybe you need to know how to hate someone in order to really love them." she shook her head. "I'm not making any sense. It's just that... I'm trying to explain why I've avoided you, why I couldn't talk to you, why why why, when the moment I realized that you were the one who woke me up was the happiest instant I've felt in...what seems like a million years. I don't know what to do, or what to say, or where to start.

"They told me that...you tried to do everything, and you ended up having it all taken away from you. Gourry-san said that you didn't figure everything out until the last minutes...but that was when it really counted, wasn't it?"

Zel didn't respond, busy replaying Dynast's words over and over in his head. A decision no man should ever have to make.

"You gave up your cure to save me."

Yes, he had done that. He'd given up his life's work for her life to continue.

"You flew across this whole ocean in...in two days for me."

All for her. He wouldn't have lasted another day had he not made that trip.

"I...am astounded to say the least."

So was he. And yet...epiphany in the form of the flickering candle came to him, and told him that there really hadn't been a choice. In countless worlds, in any possible reality, there could only be one option, and that option was her.

"I kind of wish you'd say something. Just so I know what you're thinking."

What he said came out of nowhere, and he himself was surprised to hear.

"I remember the night you disappeared, I was thinking about when we first met. About Sairaag and Zanaffar. And I was thinking about how the second time we cast the Rah-Tilt together...for a moment, I thought it flickered in a heart shape. It was just an instant, and I was sure that I had imagined it. I guess I was reminded of that because I Rah-Tilted you through the heart in Dynast's castle." he shrugged a little. "I had been going to cast an Elemekia Lance, but...it change the moment I touched you. I don't know if that means anything to you."

"I don't know yet."she responded softly.

"You don't ever have to."

"Lina-san said you almost went crazy on the boat."

"I almost went crazy this last week."

"She said you thought I was dead."

"You were dead. Er, sort-of. I just...it was this feeling I got. It wouldn't leave. It was just this idea that I was too late. Too late for what, I didn't know then, but..."

"Too late to realize that you..."

"That I love you."

Amelia began to sob again, and Zel felt his heart break for what had to be the five hundredth time. It had just slipped out, and now he wished with all his soul he could take it back. If "I love you" wasn't enough, then there was nothing else to say. He was helpless while she cried, unable to think, or act, or speak.

He shifted around on the bed, trying to get a more comfortable angle, and was surprised when something hard in his pocket pressed into his side. Reaching inside, he pulled out the Mazoku necklace that Arika had saved. Biting his lip, he held it out to her.

"You wore this when you were Amedyn."

She scrubbed at her eyes again and tried to focus on the object in his hand. He expected her strike his hand and send it flying, to demand that he crush it in his stone grip. But instead she lifted it carefully out of his hands, and studied it. And then, as his heart exploded, she reached behind her neck and fasted it back into place.

"What are you doing?!"

"Please, Zelgadis-san..."her voice was even more raspy. "I can't explain it, but it...seemed like the right thing to do. I know you don't like it, and Lina-san, and Gourry-san aren't going to like it. But I...We learn from what we experience, right? And who can say...that even if I went through hell...that I didn't learn anything. That any of us didn't learn anything."

"You...you're right."

"Besides..."it was an afterthought. "It'll keep me from tearing open this wound again." She fixed her gray eyes on his blue ones. "Does it bother you that it's Arret-san's ring?"

"Of course it bothers me, how could it not? Amelia, what I wouldn't give for it to have been your bracelet, or something else, anything..."he swallowed hard, and thought of something Arika had said. "But I guess it doesn't matter whose ring it is. It's who loves you the most."

"And that's you."

"...That's me."

A knee came down and rested flat on the quilt. The other came to rest on top of it, and a hand pushed a body forward.

"Zelgadis-san."

It wasn't a question or the beginning of a sentence. It was just his name, and as she spoke it, a thousand barriers and unspoken words and feelings between them were shattered. He crushed her to him, and was rewarded by her arms winding around his back.

"This isn't over, Zelgadis-san."she mumbled into his shoulder. "I know that we're still going to hurt each other... in too many ways...the same way we always have."

"The same way love always does." As he spoke, his eyes closed and he inhaled the scent of her hair, and his hand touched the clasp of her necklace.

"Thank you for coming to save me."her voice was like breathing, and he didn't know how he'd lived without it.

"No...thank you for saving me." said Zelgadis Graywords as he tilted Amelia's chin up, and finally, finally kissed her.